Metropolitan Onuphry: Ukrainian tomos is a tomos of slavery, not autocephaly

Kiev, July 15, 2019

Photo: unian.net

The tomos of autocephaly given to the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) by the Patriarchate of Constantinople does not grant true freedom, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine recently commented.

Speaking with the NEWSONE program “Radar,” His Beatitude noted that the tomos in fact enslave the Ukrainian people: “The tomos given by the Patriarch of Constantinople to the so-called ‘OCU’ is not a tomos of autocephaly, but a tomos of slavery. It’s just that under the name ‘tomos,’ such conditions were provided that enslave our Ukrainian people to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.”

His Beatitude added that the entire Orthodox world understands that Constantinople has lawlessly exceeded its power: “Everyone understands that Constantinople has exceeded all its powers and rights that it may have. It has no right to interfere in the affairs of another Church. These are canons known to all. It’s chaos. Everyone understand that it’s lawlessness.”

The Ukrainian primate expressed the same idea in March, when he said: “This notorious tomos—it’s a tomos of slavery, not freedom. All important questions are coordinated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which gladly answers and indicates how and what to do… It’s a comedy.”

And, as has been demonstrated in detail, Met. Onuphry noted that the canonical Church has more freedom than the schismatic-nationalist church. “We have absolute freedom… What prevents us from being saved? The Patriarch of Moscow does not prevent us; Constantinople now helps us become better. True freedom is freedom from sin, not from someone having an influence on us. It’s not those freedom that we have to locks horns for. Today our Church has all the freedoms necessary to effectively carry out our ministry,” His Beatitude assured the gathered clergy and hierarchs.